Why Our Vacation Was Awesome and A Waste of Money

Vacation: noun, A period of time devoted to pleasure, rest, or relaxation. 

A couple of years ago when my kids were 4 and 2 years old, just hearing the word “vacation” was enough to raise my blood pressure and send my mind racing with thoughts of how to accommodate our little family’s many, many needs in strange and/or cramped places without our normal conveniences (or normal sleep).

Ya see, I was a bit jaded… we had already tried some mini trips with the kids and my experience was that vacation with little ones was not a period of time devoted to pleasure, rest, or relaxation. Nope… in my book “vacation” during early motherhood is defined as a brief period of torture to prevent rest and relaxation.

So given that I had that definition in my mind (plus my whole strict budget thing) we have avoided lengthy out of town trips that didn’t involve staying with family.

Until now.

My kids have grown up… just a little.  They are now 6 and 3.5 years old. And this year we took our first long family vacation during spring break.

During our trip we spent (wasted?) nearly all of our vacation money for the whole year!  So where did the money go? 

• We drove for a whole day to another state (North Carolina).
• Stayed for nearly a week in sweet little farm cottage. 
• We ate out way more than we had planned to.
• Went skiing. 
• Indulged in treats here and there. 
• Visited the Biltmore Estate where we explored and ate a fancy lunch. 
• And we hiked at Chimney Rock Park.

This stuff was fun and all but the best memories we made were free and could have been made at home (in theory at least).

On the way to the cottage we stopped to picnic at a beautiful park situated on a small hill in the town of Irmo, SC.  After we ate, Patrick and I sat on a bench swing at the top of the park and talked while we watched the kids romp, run, and play together throughout the whole (playground-free) park. It was in that moment that I realized how much we were ready for this vacation.

There was the time that Evan and Lilla watched some older sisters playfully wrestling in the grass and decided to try it for themselves. This was especially comical because they’ve never played this way before and we had to encourage Evan to fake it so that Lilla could pull him down.

I’ll never forget watching the kids follow the tiny farm “puppy” along the trails near the cottage. The kids were so excited to have a furry friend around that it almost makes me want to get them one.

Maybe you already know this, but we like to hike. A lot. So of course we wanted to explore nature in NC as well. On our last day there it was chilly, dreary, and a bit rainy but we had to make the best of it. We packed rain jackets into the car and set off for a drizzly hike. It was cold, muddy, slippery, beautiful, peaceful, and amazing.

Then there was the time that Lilla fell asleep in the car and totally missed the fact that we pulled over for Evan to watch a train going slowly over what looked to be a really old bridge. Then we raced ahead of the train for Evan and Patrick to jump out and see it coming into a paper mill. This impromptu moment was an incredibly special surprise for my train-loving son and therefore a great memory for us all.

The only toys we brought on our vacation were a handful of legos, paper, crayons, and beads. During our down time they easily kept themselves busy with these simple things. Without complaint. Wait… what?! Yes… it happened. I was totally shocked that this worked out so well. 

And of course there’s the fact that the kids were actually good in the car for the whole trip. You certainly can’t buy that!

So yes, the best memories that we made during our vacation were indeed free. However, I’ve been converted from a mom with a vacation phobia to a vacation lover and I can’t wait to “waste” more money to make more memories like these!